What role does Folic Acid play in NTD prevention?
Folic Acid is a coenzyme. It plays an important role in many metabolisms. The developing unborn child needs it to grow cells, tissue and organs. During that phase, the folic acid requirements are higher than usual. As far back as 1976, scientists noticed that women who gave birth to NTD babies had low serum rates for folates and low vitamin levels in their red cells. In 1980, Professor Smithhells from Leeds (UK) was able to show that an additional intake of 0.4 mgs of Folic Acid before and at the start of a pregnancy significantly reduced NTD rates. This finding was confirmed by many other serious clinical studies using large numbers of women (over 250 000). The conclusive proof of the preventive effect of Folic Acid, even for women with no NTD history, came when a Hungarian study showed that, of the 2014 women who had taken additional Folic Acid, none developed an NTD, whereas, of the 2052 who had not, 6 cases were detected (Czeizel and Dudas, 1992). Recent research on NTD pathogenesi
